For the past two years, new student orientation at Cabrini has been anything but normal. The pandemic and social distancing forced orientation coordinators and leaders to adapt. Finally, many of the restrictions seen in the previous years were changed or lifted altogether. In 2022, Cabrini got the chance to return to the new student orientation of old.
New residential students began arriving around 8 a.m. A team of around 50 orientation leaders greeted them and helped them move their belongings from the car to their dorms.
The new residents came in waves from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. At around 11 a.m. new commuter students started to arrive. The commuters then had downtime until the 1 p.m. matriculation ceremony in the Dixon Center.
The matriculation ceremony is held to welcome the new students to Cabrini and make them feel at home. After the ceremony, the new students migrated to Grace Hall to sign Cabrini’s charter of core values.
Cabrini calls signing this charter, “an agreement to uphold the University’s core values and a signal of their transition to the next step in their lives.”
Afterward, the new students broke into small groups led by their orientation leaders and were categorized by their learning community. It was at this time they were able to meet some of their peers and get to know them better through icebreakers. During this time, they also had the chance to meet their academic advisors.
As the first day of orientation wound down, the new students attended Playfair, a large group icebreaker that allowed them to interact with more people outside of their small groups. In the evening there was a block party with lawn games, inflatable obstacle courses, live music, and more.
Saturday’s activities started around 10 a.m. New students met with their groups briefly before attending a variety of presentations in Widener Lecture Hall.
Presentations covered a variety of topics such as public safety. Collegiate Empowerment also presented Maximize Your Buzz, an alcohol education presentation, and Zero Shades of Gray, a sexual assault prevention presentation.
Once the presentations concluded, new students participated in an activity in which they wrote letters to their future selves.
The day continued on with events happening in the evening. The mansion hosted karaoke and crafts while the Dixon center hosted laser tag in the gym as well as a showing of the hit movie, “Finding Nemo,” in the pool.
Sunday was the last day of Cabrini’s orientation weekend. Early in the afternoon, new students were invited to attend the summer kickback in the Grill. There was music, food, and different activities for people to do ranging from board games to crafts.
New students like Jahmir Grant thought the weekend experience was enjoyable.
“One of the things that I was excited about and got out of the orientation was coming here and experiencing a lot of new things,” Grant said. “Coming here allowed me to branch out a little bit.”
Sunday evening’s bonfire, to wrap up the weekend, was postponed to the following night due to rain. The bonfire on Monday saw a big turnout from both new students and returning Cabrini students.
With events and activities ranging from raffles, food, live music, and games, the weekend was a success according to a senior chemistry major and orientation coordinator, John Crawford.
“Overall I think [the] orientation went a lot better than previous years. There was a higher turnout even with a lower number of students,” Crawford said. “Because we didn’t have to worry about limits on rooms, it was ‘if you want to come out, you can come out. Because of that, we had people come out and it was amazing to see.”
Orientation weekend is a time to acclimate new students to Cabrini and college life. Many new students can be nervous about starting this new chapter in their lives. Gian Paulo was one of those new students.
“I was kind of nervous going into college because I thought it would feel more like a prison rather than a place to hang out and learn,” Paulo said. “But as soon as I came here it was very welcoming and I met a lot of cool people.”
There were some orientation leaders that lost their voice after the weekend was over because of how much cheering they did for the new students. They were willing to go above and beyond to make new students, like Paulo, feel welcomed.
